rep for the etymology of

I don't know enough to get a rep but, yeah, I think someone came up with the word caterpillar because of the way it moves--kind of slow and caterpillar-like.

It was once called continuous or endless track. I'm not sure which came first, the use of caterpillar for the track or the Caterpillar Corporation which used the track in their equipment (and hence might have become the common name for the track).

You're thinking too much.

can't claim a rep cos I only googled. the hairy cat intrigues me.

From the meaning shreds, pillage was applied to the spoils of war; whence OE piller: thief. And from the 15th into the 19th c., caterpillar hairy little cat) was also applied to a plunderer, often with a contrast, as by Scott: “We have become the caterpillars of the island, instead of its pillars.” caterpillar tread, of tractor and army tank, is named for the manner of its movement.

Click to expand...

The Origins of English Words: A Discursive Dictionary of Indo-European Roots by Joseph Twadell Shipley

My download speed doesn't let me see much of that Youtube clip* but those look more like sawfly larvae than caterpillars.

Caterpillars move by the use of six true legs and a number of pro-legs. The main thing is that they are long and flexible and able to move over different terrains.

* and I'm not even going to try the QI link


ETA: Here's a picture of sawfly larvae I took earlier. By which I mean in 2008.

have you seen a centipede move? once a centipede was on the other side of my bathroom's window net. i stared at it from the window, and soon it began nibbling on the net. i sprayed perfume on it, cause i didnt have any poison spray.

a few more moments later it tore through the net and came on my side of the bathroom.

it was red and so scary. about 8-10 inches.

i google searched what to do, n it said that insects dont like cold spaces. so i turned on the ac in full power, with the bathroom door n light turned on...n hoped for the centipede to crawl away right through that hole in the net.